Interior design aficionados are always on the look out for tips that will help make their home look picture perfect.

But not everyone will be following the example of one creative type whose living room graced the pages of Ideal Home magazine.

Twitter user Pete Otway snapped a picture of a photo shoot from the magazine, illustrating how featured homeowner Lauren stacks her books back to front on her shelf - with the colourful spines facing the wall.

The magazine explained it allowed Lauren to 'keep the look neutral', but Otway, unconvinced, joked that it made her a 'blithering idiot'.

Ideal Home published a tip from a homeowner known only as Lauren who stacked her bookshelf backwards

The magazine printed a picture of her shelf filled with books, all neatly stacked with the page side and not the spine facing, raising the question of how she'd find a specific title without pulling the whole collection from the shelf.

A heading on the shoot read: 'Lauren keeps the look neutral by stacking books back to front.'